Interior Coatings for Glass Structures in Electronic Devices

ABSTRACT

An electronic device may include electrical components and other components mounted within a housing. The device may have a display on a front face of the device and may have a glass layer that forms part of the housing on a rear face of the device. The glass layer and other glass structures in the electronic device may be provided with coatings. An interior coating on a glass layer may include multiple layers of material such as an adhesion promotion layer, thin-film layers of materials such as silicon, niobium oxide and other metal oxides, and metals to help adjust the appearance of the coating. A metal layer may be formed on top of the coating to serve as an environmental protection layer and opacity enhancement layer. In some configurations, the coating may include four layers.

This patent application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 16/744,944, filed on Jan. 16, 2020, which is a continuation ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/000,606, filed on Jun. 5, 2018, nowU.S. Pat. No. 10,556,823, which claims the benefit of provisional patentapplication No. 62/522,561, filed on Jun. 20, 2017, which are herebyincorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

BACKGROUND

This relates generally to coatings, and, more particularly, to coatingsfor glass structures in electronic devices.

Electronic devices such as cellular telephones, computers, watches, andother devices may contain glass structures. For example, electronicdevices may have displays in which an array of pixels is covered with atransparent layer of glass. In some devices, a rear housing wall may becovered with a layer of glass.

If care is not taken, glass structures may be susceptible to crackingwhen subjected to elevated stress such as during an unintended dropevent. The appearance of a glass structure in an electronic device canbe improved by forming a thin-film coating on the glass structure.However, the presence of thin-film coatings on an inner glass surfacehas the potential to create stress concentrations that make the glassstructure susceptible to breakage.

SUMMARY

An electronic device may include electrical components and othercomponents mounted within a housing. The device may include glassstructures. As an example, the device may have a display on a front faceof the device and may have a glass layer that forms part of the housingon a rear face of the device. The glass layer and other glass structuresin the electronic device may be provided with coatings. An interiorcoating on a glass layer may include multiple layers of material such asan adhesion promotion layer, thin-film layers of materials such assilicon, niobium oxide and other metal oxides, and metals to help adjustthe appearance of the coating and therefore the appearance of theelectronic device. A metal layer may be formed on top of the coating toserve as an environmental protection layer and opacity enhancementlayer.

In some configurations, the coating may include four layers of material.These layers may include a layer on an inner surface of the glass layer.This layer may be formed from a material such as titanium that serves asan adhesion promotion layer. The thickness of high-modulus materialssuch as titanium on the inner surface of the glass layer may be limitedto a relatively small value to prevent these materials from impartingstress to the glass. The titanium layer and/or additional layers in thecoating may serve as a buffer layer that prevents stress from brittlematerials such as metal oxides and other materials in the coating fromadversely affecting the strength of the glass layer. Soft metals such ascopper may be used in the buffer layer and/or elsewhere in the coatingto adjust color and help block stress. A titanium capping layer or othercapping layer may be used as in the coating to prevent degradation tothe coating from air exposure and to ensure that the coating has adesired opacity.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an illustrative electronic device of thetype that may include a glass structure with a coating in accordancewith an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative electronicdevice with a coating in accordance with an embodiment.

FIGS. 3, 4, and 5 are illustrative glass layers with coatings inaccordance with embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Electronic devices and other items may be provided with structures thatare formed from glass. For example, an electronic device may include adisplay. The display may have an array of pixels for displaying imagesfor a user. To protect the pixel array from damage, the display may becovered with a layer of glass that serves as a display cover layer.Other portions of electronic devices may also include glass structures.For example, the rear face of an electronic device may be covered with alayer of glass. In this type of arrangement, the glass forms a housingsurface that is pleasing to the touch. Glass structures may also be usedas optical windows, buttons, and/or other structures in an electronicdevice.

It may be desirable to form a coating layer on a glass structure tochange the appearance of the glass structure. As an example, a blanketcoating layer or a patterned coating layer in the shape of a logo,decorative trim, text, or other shape may be formed on the interiorsurface of a glass layer in an electronic device. The coating may bereflective, may exhibit an appearance with a desired color, may helpblock internal device components from view, and/or may have otherdesired optical properties. By forming the coating on the interior ofthe glass layer, damage to the coating from scratches may be reduced.Configurations in which glass coatings are formed on exterior surfacesof a glass structure may also be used.

An illustrative electronic device of the type that may include glassstructures is shown in FIG. 1. Electronic device 10 may be a computingdevice such as a laptop computer, a computer monitor containing anembedded computer, a tablet computer, a cellular telephone, a mediaplayer, or other handheld or portable electronic device, a smallerdevice such as a wristwatch device (e.g., a watch with a wrist strap), apendant device, a headphone or earpiece device, a device embedded ineyeglasses or other equipment worn on a user's head, or other wearableor miniature device, a television, a computer display that does notcontain an embedded computer, a gaming device, a navigation device, anembedded system such as a system in which electronic equipment with adisplay is mounted in a kiosk or automobile, equipment that implementsthe functionality of two or more of these devices, or other electronicequipment. In the illustrative configuration of FIG. 1, device 10 is aportable device such as a cellular telephone, media player, tabletcomputer, wrist device, or other portable computing device. Otherconfigurations may be used for device 10 if desired. The example of FIG.1 is merely illustrative.

In the example of FIG. 1, device 10 includes a display such as display14 mounted in housing 12. Housing 12, which may sometimes be referred toas an enclosure or case, may be formed of plastic, glass, ceramics,fiber composites, metal (e.g., stainless steel, aluminum, titanium,gold, etc.), other suitable materials, or a combination of any two ormore of these materials. Housing 12 may be formed using a unibodyconfiguration in which some or all of housing 12 is machined or moldedas a single structure or may be formed using multiple structures (e.g.,an internal frame structure, one or more structures that form exteriorhousing surfaces, etc.).

Display 14 may be a touch screen display that incorporates a layer ofconductive capacitive touch sensor electrodes or other touch sensorcomponents (e.g., resistive touch sensor components, acoustic touchsensor components, force-based touch sensor components, light-basedtouch sensor components, etc.) or may be a display that is nottouch-sensitive. Capacitive touch screen electrodes may be formed froman array of indium tin oxide pads or other transparent conductivestructures.

Display 14 may include an array of pixels formed from liquid crystaldisplay (LCD) components, an array of electrophoretic pixels, an arrayof plasma pixels, an array of organic light-emitting diode pixels orother light-emitting diodes, an array of electrowetting pixels, orpixels based on other display technologies.

Display 14 may include one or more layers of glass. For example, theoutermost layer of display 14, which may sometimes be referred to as adisplay cover layer, may be formed from a hard transparent material suchas glass to help protect display 14 from damage. Other portions ofdevice 10 such as portions of housing 12 and/or other structures mayalso be formed from glass. For example, walls in housing 12 such as arear housing wall may be formed from glass.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative device thatcontains glass structures such as device 10 of FIG. 1. In theillustrative configuration for device 10 of FIG. 2, housing 12 of device10 has portions that define sidewalls for device 10. These sidewallportions of housing 12 may be formed from a material such metal (as anexample). Display 14 may include display cover layer 16 (e.g., a layerof glass) and display module 18 (e.g., display layers that form an arrayof pixels that present images for a user on the front face of device10). Display module 18 may be a liquid crystal display structure, anorganic light-emitting diode display structure, or other suitabledisplay. During operation, module 18 may present images that areviewable through display cover layer 16. The rear of the housing fordevice 10 may be formed from a glass structure such as glass layer 24.Internal components in device 10 such as components 22 (e.g., electricalcomponents such as integrated circuits, sensors, etc.) may be mounted onone or more substrates such as printed circuit 20.

To hide internal components such as components 22 from view, inactiveborder areas in layer 16 and portions of other glass structures indevice 10 such as some or all of glass layer 24 may be covered withcoatings. In some arrangements, a coating may be used primarily to blocklight (e.g., to hide internal device structures from view). In otherarrangements, a patterned coating may be used to form text, logos, trim,and/or other decorative patterns. Coatings for glass structures indevice 10 may be black or may have non-black colors (e.g., blue, red,yellow, gold, rose gold, red-violet, pink, etc.). If desired, coatingsfor glass structures in device 10 may be shiny. Coatings on glass layer24 and/or other glass structures in device 10 may be formed from metals,semiconductors, and/or dielectrics. Materials for the coatings mayinclude organic materials such as polymer layers and/or inorganicmaterials such as oxide layers, nitride layers, and/or other inorganicdielectric materials.

If care is not taken, the presence of a coating layer on a glassstructure such as layer 24 can predispose the glass structure to damage.For example, the likelihood that a glass structure in device 10 willbecome damaged when exposed to a large amount of stress during a dropevent or other event that creates stress on the glass structure can beincreased by the presence of a brittle coating layer. Cracks may form inthe brittle coating layer and these cracks may create stressconcentrations at the interface between the coating layer and the glassthat can propagate into the glass during a drop event.

To ensure that a glass structure in device 10 such as layer 24 has asatisfactorily large strength to withstand the stresses encounteredduring use of device 10, coatings on layer 24 may be formed usingconfigurations that reduce coating-induced stress.

In one illustrative arrangement, some or all of the layers of materialin a coating on glass layer 24 may be formed from material that have aYoung's modulus of elasticity that matches that of glass layer 24. Glasslayer 24 may, as an example, have an elastic modulus (Young's modulus)of 70 GPa. Coating-induced stress may be reduced by forming coatings onglass layer 24 from a material having a Young's modulus that is within20%, within 10%, within 5%, or other suitable amount of 70 GPa. As anexample, a reflective coating on glass layer 24 may be formed from analuminum layer (Young's modulus 69-70 GPa). Other examples of materialshaving modulus values that are close to that of glass layer 24 includetin and copper.

Layers with mismatched elastic modulus values (e.g., material with anelastic modulus of 200 GPa) will tend to generate undesirable stress onlayer 24 unless the thickness of these layers has a suitably low value.If, as an example, a layer of titanium (which has a high modulus) isused as a coating on layer 24, the layer of titanium may be formed to athickness of 5-10 nm, less than 20 nm, less than 50 nm, at least 1 nm,or other value that is suitably low to ensure that excessive stress isnot imparted to glass layer 24. Titanium layers of 100 nm and above thatare formed directly on the surface of a glass layer may impart morestress to the glass layer than desired.

In another illustrative configuration, potentially brittle materialssuch as metal oxides may be used in a coating on glass layer 24 providedthat a buffer layer of a ductile material such as metal is formedbetween the brittle material and glass layer 24. If, as an example,niobium oxide layer is being used in a coating to generate thin-filminterference effects and thereby help a coating produce a desiredappearance (e.g., a desired color) when observed through glass layer 24,a softer material such as copper may be interposed between the niobiumoxide layer and glass layer 24 to help reduce the amount of stressimparted by the niobium layer to glass layer 24. Soft materials such ascopper or other soft metals (Al, Sn, etc.) may also be interposedbetween brittle coating materials (e.g., brittle inorganic layers) in acoating and glass 24 to help protect glass layer 24. In someconfigurations, thin layers of metals such as titanium may be used asbuffer layers for brittle layers such as niobium oxide layers.

Using stress mitigation techniques such as these may allow coatings tobe formed on the interior surface of glass layer 24 and/or on otherglass structures in device 10 without unduly increasing risks of damagewhen device 10 is dropped or otherwise subjected to high stress events.

An illustrative coating configuration for glass layer 24 that includes abrittle inorganic material such as a metal oxide is shown in FIG. 3. Asshown in the example of FIG. 3, coating 30 may be formed on the innersurface of glass layer 24. Glass layer 24 (e.g., a housing wallstructure such as glass layer 24 of FIG. 2) may have a thickness in theZ dimension of 800 microns, at least 300 microns, at least 500 microns,at least 600 microns, less than 2000 microns, less than 1200 microns,less than 1000 microns, or other suitable thickness. Layer 30 may have athickness of at least 10 nm, at least 50 nm, at least 250 nm, less than500 nm, less than 100 nm, or other suitable thickness.

In the example of FIG. 3, layer 30 includes four layers. Configurationsfor layer 30 that include at least two layers, at least three layers, atleast four layers, at least five layers, or fewer six layers may beused, if desired. Layer 30 may be deposited by physical vapor depositiontechniques or other suitable fabrication techniques. Shadow masking,photolithography, and/or other patterning techniques may optionally beused to form coatings on glass layer 24, if desired (e.g., thesepatterning techniques may be used to pattern layer 30 of FIG. 3).

The materials and the thicknesses of the materials that make up layers30 may be configured to reduce stress on glass layer 24 while producinga coating on the interior surface of glass layer 24 that presents adesired appearance as layer 30 is viewed through layer 24 by a user ofdevice 10. In some situations, layer 30 may be configured to exhibit arose gold appearance or a red-violet (blush) appearance. Other colorscan be produced by adjusting the thicknesses and materials of the layersthat make up layer 30. The use of coating layer 30 to produce a rosegold or red-violet appearance for the rear housing wall of device 10 ismerely illustrative.

In the illustrative configuration of FIG. 3, layer 32 is a layer of ametal such as titanium. Layer 32 may have a thickness of 5-7 nm, atleast 2 nm, at least 3 nm, less than 15 nm, less than 10 nm, or othersuitable thickness. Layer 32 may serve as an adhesion promotion layerfor coating 30. Titanium for layer 32 can be deposited by sputtering (asan example) to form a stable base layer for coating layer 30. Thethickness of layer 32 of FIG. 3 is not large enough to render layer 32completely opaque, so additional layers in layer 30 can be configured toadjust the appearance of layer 30.

Layer 34 may be deposited on layer 32. In the illustrative configurationof FIG. 3, layer 34 is an inorganic dielectric layer that is used inadjusting the appearance of layer 30 (e.g., the color of layer 30).Layer 34 may be, for example, a metal oxide such as niobium oxide. Thethickness of layer 34 may 3-6 nm, at least 1 nm, at least 2 nm, at least3 nm, less than 20 nm, less than 7 nm, or other suitable thickness. Whenlayer 34 is formed from a material such as niobium oxide, layer 34 willbe relatively brittle. Titanium layer 32, which is sufficiently thin toavoid imposing undesired stress on layer 24, serves as a ductile bufferlayer that helps reduce stress on layer 24 from layer 34. Inconfigurations of this type in which a buffer layer in coating 30 isformed from a material such as titanium or other metal with a relativelyhigher elastic modulus (e.g., over 75 GPa or over 100 GPa), it may bedesirable for the ratio of the thickness Ta of the buffer layer material(e.g., the thickness of layer 32 of FIG. 3) to the thickness Tb of thebrittle material (e.g., the thickness of layer 34) to be greater than1.5. When this minimum ratio of Ta to Tb is observed, coating layer 30will not excessively weaken glass layer 24.

Layer 36 of coating layer 30 of FIG. 3 may be formed from a metal suchas copper that helps impart a desired color to layer 30 and that mayblock stress from subsequently deposited layers such as layer 38. Thethickness of layer 36 may be 24-35 nm, at least 10 nm, at least 15 nm,less than 70 nm, less than 40 nm, or other suitable thickness.

Layer 38 may be formed on layer 36. Layer 38 may be formed from amaterial such as titanium and may have a thickness of 50 nm, at least 10nm, at least 20 nm, at least 30 nm, at least 40 nm, less than 100 nm,less than 75 nm, or less than 60 nm. The innermost surface of coating 30(the surface of coating 30 facing interior components such as components22 of device 10 of FIG. 2) may be exposed to air in the interior ofdevice 10. Exposed copper can react with air and is therefore not highlystable. By forming layer 38 on top of layer 36, coating 30 is protectedfrom environmental degradation. The opacity of layer 30 and thereforethe ability of layer 30 to prevent external viewing of internal devicecomponents through layer 24 and layer 30 can also be enhanced by thepresence of layer 38.T

The protective metal of layer 38 (e.g., titanium) may have a highmodulus, so the presence of a soft underlying layer such as copper layer36 may help reduce any stress imparted to layer 24 by layer 38. Toadjust the color of coating layer 30, the relative thicknesses and typesof materials used for layers 32, 34, 36, and 38 may be adjusted (e.g.,to adjust thin-film interference effects and/or bulk spectral effectsassociated with these layer). In some configurations, additional layersand/or fewer layers may be used in forming coating layer 30. Thearrangement of FIG. 3 is illustrative.

If desired, soft metals (e.g., copper, tin, silver, etc.) may be placedbetween a brittle layer such as a niobium oxide layer and glass 24. Forexample, in coating layer 30, layer 34 may be a copper layer (e.g.,e.g., a copper layer of at least 5 nm in thickness, of less than 50 nmof thickness, or other suitable thickness) and layer 36 may be a niobiumoxide layer (e.g., a layer of at least 5 nm in thickness, of less than10 nm in thickness, or other suitable thickness). In this type ofarrangement, the titanium and copper layers at the bottom of layer 30serve as a buffer layer of collective thickness Ta that blocks stressfrom the overlying niobium oxide layer of thickness Tb. In situationssuch as these in which the buffer layer in coating layer 30 containssoft metals, the ratio of Ta to Tb should generally be at least 1.0 toblock stress effectively.

Another illustrative coating configuration for glass layer 24 is shownin FIG. 4. In this example, coating layer (coating) 40 has layers suchas layers 42, 44, 46, and 48. There may be at least two layers ofmaterial in layer 40, at least three layers, at least four layers, atleast five layers, fewer than six layers, or other suitable number oflayers in layer 40 to achieve a desired appearance for layer 40 whenviewed by a user through glass layer 24. With one illustrativeconfiguration, the layers of layer 40 are configured so that layer 40imparts a dark gray appearance to device 10 when viewed through glasslayer 24. Other colors may be produced by layer 40, if desired (e.g.,black, bluish black, silver, etc.).

Layer 42 may be a metal layer such as a titanium layer that serves as anadhesion promotion layer for layer 40. The thickness of layer 42 may be15-20 nm, at least 5 nm, at least 10 nm, less than 20 nm, less than 30nm, less than 25 nm, or other suitable thickness.

Layers 44 and 46 may be formed from inorganic materials. For example,layer 44 may be formed from a material such as silicon or a materialsuch as niobium oxide or other inorganic dielectric material (e.g.,metal oxides, etc.). Layer 46 may be formed from a material that allowslayers 44 and 46 and the other thin-film layers of coating layer 40 toproduce a desired color for device 10 (e.g., through thin-filminterference effects and other optical effects). For example, if layer44 is a silicon layer, layer 46 may be a niobium oxide layer and iflayer 44 is a niobium oxide layer, layer 46 may be a silicon layer. Thethickness of layer 44 may be 5-8 nm, at least 2 nm, at least 4 nm, lessthan 20 nm, less than 10 nm, or other suitable thickness. The thicknessof layer 46 may be 7-8 nm, at least 3 nm, at least 5 nm, less than 20nm, less than 10 nm, or other suitable thickness.

Layer 48 may be formed on layer 46 to provide layer 40 withenvironmental protection and a desired opacity. Layer 48 may be, forexample, a layer of titanium having a thickness of 50 nm, at least 10nm, at least 30 nm, at least 40 nm, less than 75 nm, or other suitablethickness.

In a configuration of the type shown in FIG. 4, layer 42 may serve as ametal buffer layer that helps block excess stress from brittle layerssuch as layers 44 and 46. To help ensure that layer 42 adequatelybuffers stress from layers 44 and 46, the ratio of the thickness Ta oftitanium layer 42 to the collective thickness Tb of brittle material incoating 40 (e.g., the collective thickness of layers 44 and 46) may begreater than 1.5.

In some configurations, coatings on layer 24 may include organicmaterials such as colored ink. As shown in FIG. 5, for example, coating50 may include ink layer 58 on top of one or more other layers such aslayers 52, 54, and 56. Layer 58 may be coated with a titanium layer orother environmental capping layer or may be left uncovered.

Layer 52 of FIG. 5 may be an adhesion promotion layer formed from ametal such as titanium (e.g., a titanium layer of at least 5 nm inthickness, of less than 10 nm in thickness, less than 20 nm inthickness, or other suitable thickness). Layer 54 may be a copper layeror other soft metal layer (e.g., a layer of at least 5 nm in thickness,less than 50 nm in thickness, or other suitable thickness) and layer 56may be a niobium oxide layer, other metal oxide layer, or other layer ofmaterial (e.g., a layer having a thickness of at least 5 nm, of lessthan 10 nm, or other suitable thickness) for helping to producethin-film interference effects to adjust color. If desired, layer 56 maybe a copper layer or other soft metal layer (e.g., a layer of at least 5nm in thickness, less than 50 nm in thickness, or other suitablethickness) and layer 54 may be a niobium oxide layer, other metal oxidelayer, or other layer of material (e.g., a layer having a thickness ofat least 5 nm, of less than 10 nm, or other suitable thickness) forhelping to produce thin-film interference effects to adjust color. Layer58 may be formed from a polymer binder that contains dye and/or pigmentof desired colors to help adjust the appearance of layer 50.

The foregoing is merely illustrative and various modifications can bemade to the described embodiments. The foregoing embodiments may beimplemented individually or in any combination.

What is claimed is:
 1. An electronic device, comprising: a housinghaving a glass portion; and a coating on the glass portion, wherein thecoating includes a metal adhesion promotion layer on the glass portionand a layer of material on the metal adhesion promotion layer.
 2. Theelectronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the glass portion has aninterior surface and an exterior surface and wherein the coating is onthe interior surface.
 3. The electronic device defined in claim 1wherein the material comprises a metal oxide.
 4. The electronic devicedefined in claim 3 wherein the metal oxide comprises niobium oxide. 5.The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the material comprisessilicon.
 6. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein thematerial comprises metal.
 7. The electronic device defined in claim 6wherein the metal in the second layer is selected from the groupconsisting of: tin, copper, and aluminum.
 8. The electronic devicedefined in claim 1 wherein the metal adhesion promotion layer is a firstlayer, the layer of material is a second layer, the coating furtherincludes a third layer, and the second layer is interposed between thethird layer and the first layer.
 9. The electronic device defined inclaim 8 wherein the third layer is configured to environmentally protectthe coating from exposure to air.
 10. The electronic device defined inclaim 8 wherein the third layer comprises titanium.
 11. The electronicdevice defined in claim 10 wherein the metal adhesion promotion layercomprises titanium.
 12. An electronic device having an interior and anexterior, the electronic device comprising: a housing comprising a glassportion, wherein the glass portion has an inner side facing the interiorand an outer side facing the exterior; and a coating on the glassportion, wherein the coating includes a metal layer on the inner side.13. The electronic device defined in claim 12 wherein the metal layer isa first layer, and the coating further includes a second layer on thefirst layer.
 14. The electronic device defined in claim 13 wherein thesecond layer comprises a metal oxide.
 15. The electronic device definedin claim 13 wherein the coating further includes a third layer on thesecond layer, wherein the third layer comprises a material that isdifferent from the first layer and the second layer.
 16. An electronicdevice having a front and a rear, the electronic device comprising: adisplay at the front; a housing having a glass layer at the rear; and acoating on the glass layer, wherein the coating comprises a metal layeron the glass layer and a layer on the metal layer.
 17. The electronicdevice defined in claim 16 wherein the coating has a color selected fromthe group consisting of: black, blue, red, yellow, gold, red-violet androse gold.
 18. The electronic device defined in claim 16 wherein theglass layer has an inner surface and an outer surface, and wherein thecoating is on the inner surface.
 19. The electronic device defined inclaim 16 wherein the coating is patterned to form a logo.
 20. Theelectronic device defined in claim 16 wherein the layer comprises ametal oxide.